The inventive concepts described herein relate to a wireless device, and more particularly, relate to a terahertz wave generator and a terahertz wave generating method.
A terahertz wave may have a frequency of 0.1 THz to 10 THz, and may be characterized in that it is harmless to humans due to its low energy and has an inherent spectrum (e.g., terahertz wave fingerprint). For this reason, the terahertz wave may have been researched. Up to now, the research may have been made using a time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) system using a femtosecond (fs) laser. The TDS system may excite carriers at a photoconductive switch of a photomixer using the femtosecond laser. The photoconductive switch may be formed of a material having a very short carrier lifetime, which enables a femtosecond level of a pulsed current to flow through an antenna.
When a pulsed current flows through an integrated antenna, a wideband terahertz wave may be generated to be propagated to the air. That is, the TDS system may use a pulsed terahertz wave. However, a device generating a femtosecond laser may be bulky and high-priced. Also, a handheld system using a terahertz continuous wave instead of time-domain spectroscopy may be useful at applications used at the field. A photomixing technique using a photoconductive antenna or photomixer and a laser having different wavelengths may have been researched to apply it to the field or to implement a subminiature system.